A Tribute to Warren Quarnstrom

Warren Quarnstrom, an original member of the Marshall College Committee when it first met in 1956 and an instrumental figure in establishing what was then Southwest Minnesota State College in Marshall, passed away on August 22, 2020.

The entire Mustang Family was saddened by the death of the SMSU icon, a man who helped get the institution located in Marshall, and a founding member of the Mustang Booster Club and SMSU Foundation. Together with his wife Ardella, they were the Mustang Couple, and he was the Godfather.

“Warren was the true embodiment of what it means to be a Mustang,” said Director of Athletics Chris Hmielewski. “Warren and Ardella were fixtures on our campus, and specifically, at our athletic events. They supported athletics unconditionally. Everyone who came in contact with him left with a smile, but also with an impression of how important he was to our Marshall community, and SMSU. They are a special family, and he was a special person."

A COLLEGE ON THE PRAIRIE

Quarnstrom was a young man when he graduated from what was then William Mitchell Law School and moved to Marshall in 1955. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and was a banker for four years in the Twin Cities while taking law school classes part-time, three nights per week.

His father, Willis, a Brewster, Minn., banker, had heard of an opening in Marshall. Warren and Ardella at that time had two young children — Tom and Jill — and made their way to a city that would hold so many adventures for them. A third child, John, would come later.

When he arrived he joined a firm headed by Bruce Forbes. Lee Doering would join them in 1957. An automobile accident would take Forbes’ life in 1958, and Quarnstrom and Doering formed a new law firm that bears their names today.

“We got involved with groups right away, it was a good way to meet people,” said Ardella, who knew Warren since they were in grade school together in Brewster. It was in October of 1956 that a group of civic-minded individuals got together in the New Atlantic Hotel to talk about the lack of a college in southwest Minnesota. Superintendent Les Frey and the Marshall School Board approved a 1956 survey that discovered that the percentage of high school graduates who went on to college from Marshall and the surrounding area was quite low compared to towns such as Mankato and St. Cloud, which had colleges. Talk would soon lead to action, and the long, winding road to the establishment of SMSU had begun. “It was Les Frey who asked Warren to be on that College Committee,” recalls Ardella.

Warren was eager to help, and donated his expertise to the group. There was much legal work involved, and more as the years passed.

The story of how a college came to be built on the prairie is an interesting one, chronicled by fellow committee member, the late Dick Jorgenson, in his book, A History of Southwest State University: The Creation of a College and University, 1956-1996.

Warren “was all in” on the idea for a college, said his son Tom, an SMSU alumnus. He was a member of the original Marshall College Fund, a precursor to the SMSU Foundation. “Its original mission was to fund the land purchase from the McLaughlins, where the college is today,” Warren said in an earlier interview. “After that, its mission and name were changed.”

Warren and Ardella in the 1996 Homecoming Parade

Warren signing the 50th Anniversary Charter

A MUSTANG AT HEART

Warren was an outstanding athlete at Brewster High School and his love of sports continued his entire life.

“He was a big guy by the eighth grade and he was recruited to play (varsity sports),” said Ardella. “In those days, in a small town, you played everything.”

He and Ardella were married on Nov. 23, 1950 — Thanksgiving — and their honeymoon consisted of a road trip to Madison, Wis., to watch the Gophers take on the University of Wisconsin. “We ruined everyone’s Thanksgiving,” Ardella joked. “It was 22-below on our wedding day. We went to the game and were back at work on Monday.”

When Southwest Minnesota State College introduced athletics, Warren was a Mustang fan, through and through.

“I got to know Warren early on, through athletics,” said former Business professor Ken Mukomela. “I came in 1968. We would travel to away games for football and basketball with Ron McLaughlin and a couple of others. We were road warriors. He would stop at the scorer’s table and get a copy of the stats and really look those over. His son Tom is the same way — athletics and stats.”

SMSU men’s basketball coach Brad Bigler has been associated with the university since he was a player. “I guess my friendship with Warren grew after I got done playing,” he said. “As an assistant I spent time with him and Dick Jorgenson. He was always at the Booster Club and other events, and we attended the same church (First Lutheran). Over the course of time, having the opportunity to be around him, our friendship grew. His grandson Joe was our manager and our team would go over to their house for a holiday meal. They opened their doors to our players. I think we developed a genuine respect and appreciation for each other.”

The Quarnstroms would also open their doors to coaches. “We had several that stayed with us,” said Ardella. “We lived on Circle Drive then and whenever someone didn’t have a place to stay, they would stay with us. (The late basketball coach) Perry Ford stayed with us, and his kids would join him on the weekends. Some of the coaches had families living somewhere else and they just needed a room. We inherited quite a few,” she said.

They got to know the players, too. “I used to repair (equipment) straps and clothing for the players,” she said. “I’d give them something to eat, and got to know them. It’s nice to see that some have stayed in the area.”

Ardella is a St. Olaf alumna and taught home economics at several area high schools, but not Marshall. “You couldn’t get hired back then — you were taking a job from a man,” she said. “So we would carpool to area towns. Six of us went to Russell, and six went to Milroy.” She finds it ironic she was a charter teacher at Edina High School in the Twin Cities when it was first opened, but couldn’t get hired in Marshall.

THE SENSE OF HUMOR

You can’t talk about Warren Quarnstrom without mentioning his sense of humor.

“He’d say something, and you’d just pause and have to think about it,” said Bigler. “When you paused, he knew he got you. Then he’d just chuckle. I know he got me more times than I’d like to admit.”

“It was wicked,” said Hmielewski. “My first year as Athletic Director I was at a volleyball game. During that match we had two balls go into the (suspended) batting cage netting. At the break I’m walking behind the press box and here’s Warren and Sheldon Haaland. ‘What’s going on with the balls getting stuck up there?’ he asked, and he was as serious as can be. I apologized and then he said, ‘When Howard Gauthier (Hmielewski’s predecessor) was here, that never would have happened.’ Sheldon was grinning ear-to-ear, and just as Warren was about to leave, he cracks that little grin. The look on my face was priceless. I’m in my first year, wanted to do things right, and he caught me. Warren took great pride in putting me in my place that day, in a Warren Quarnstrom kind of way. Ardella and other family members tell that story a lot.”

Tim Miles, who took the SMSU basketball program to its first Elite Eight appearance and would later go on to coach at North Dakota State, Colorado State and Nebraska, recalls that humor as being ‘wicked.’

“He had a real intellect, and he also had impeccable timing. You’d have a conversation with him and he’d slip something in. The timing encapsulated the whole moment. He said once ‘Well, (Ardella and I) started dating in kindergarten or first grade and she wouldn’t leave.’ They reminded me of George Burns and Gracie Allen.”

“He had a subtle, keen sense of humor,” said former Director of Athletics Butch Raymond. “He had this tendency at Booster Club to ask that kind of question — subtle but with a twinkle in his eye. It had a hidden humor, and was always pointed. He wasn’t bashful about putting me on the hot spot, but he did it in a comical way.”

Lee Raske and his wife Norma, friends of the Quarnstroms, accompanied them to San Diego for the 2016 Holiday Bowl, where the Gophers defeated Washington State. “He had that wonderful sense of humor. He was always a fine gentleman,” said Raske, also a Minnesota alumnus. Warren was honored at a breakfast the morning of the bowl game. Then-Gopher coach Tracy Claeys heard about the longtime Gopher fan and was there to present him with an autographed football.

“Dad loved a good story, but he wasn’t a good storyteller,” said Tom Quarnstrom. “He was a one-liner guy, and he was great at it.”

Even his obituary mentioned that humor. “He loved to make subtle, sarcastic remarks and wait to see if anyone took the bait. If someone thought he was making a serious comment, all the better,” it reads.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Warren was involved with so many groups and organizations, and was a community cornerstone. He served as president of the SMSU Foundation, Booster Club officer, a Marshall School Board member, church president, Athletics Hall of Honor member and Alumni Association Honorary Lifetime Membership Award winner. He was a loyal Rotary Club member, and went to extraordinary lengths to attend a weekly meeting.

“We went over to Europe and Warren found a Rotary dinner meeting. We met a guy familiar with Brewster, who had rented a farm from my mother,” said Ardella.

“He was one of those people who was not just a talker, but a doer,” said Raymond. “He and Ardella would hold socials in their home when we were interviewing coaches. They would also be one of the first couples at Booster Club meetings, or buying season tickets. He helped start the Reverse Raffle (Athletics’ largest fundraiser) from scratch.”

“Warren always made you feel better, even when things weren’t going good,” said Miles.

Kevin Anundson, an SMSU alumnus, loyal SMSU supporter and a State Farm agent in Minneota, Minn., sat with Warren at Mustang basketball games the last few years. “He had a chairback seat behind the scorer’s table, but we’d sit on the other side, in the front row with a few of his friends. He had a better view there. It got difficult for him to climb the bleachers to the chairback seats. I brought him a Nut Goodie candy bar from Gislason Hardware each game. It was fun to watch the games with them.”

Tom Quarnstrom enjoyed attending many athletic events with Warren, and describes him as a wonderful father. “I don’t remember him ever getting terribly upset and he never raised a hand to any of us. His method of parenting was quiet, but he got the point home by what he’d say. I remember once he had been trying to get ahold of my brother (at the U of M) until 11 p.m. The next day when he did get in touch with him, his opening line was, ‘I didn’t know the library was open that late.’ For him, it was family first, and he loved his community, and Southwest.”

“He was kind to everyone, no matter who they were. He was an excellent father, and I don’t think he ever raised his voice to them at all, but they knew what was what,” said Ardella.

The two established the Warren and Ardella Quarnstrom Endowed Scholarship, which is awarded to a first-year student-athlete. It is awarded based on academic leadership qualities, and is renewable for four years.

Warren and Ardella met every president since the start of the institution, and have stories about each. There were good times for SMSU, and not-so-good-times, such as when enrollment dipped dramatically after the end of the Vietnam War.

Former President Jon Wefald would come to their house and take Warren on road trips to area towns in an effort to recruit each class’s valedictorian.

First SMSU President Howard Bellows, also a pilot, “came around one day and asked if he wanted to fly up to Bemidji. ‘I’m going to hire a chef for our hospitality program,’ he told Warren. He was the right guy to be our first president,” said Ardella.

Former President Connie J. Gores lived just down the block and would pop in almost daily, said Ardella.

Warren was the last living member of the Marshall College Committee, and didn’t just witness, but participated in, the institution’s history. He had an uncanny memory for dates and events.

Warren died on Ardella’s birthday this year. They were married 69 years. What does she miss most? “When I want to tell him something and he’s not here. Something may be going on, and I know he’d want to know about it.”

It seems everyone has a story about the man. He helped build SMSU, and he and Ardella were perhaps the institution’s greatest boosters. He was a quiet and dignified gentleman, who let his actions speak for themselves.

Such was Warren’s legacy.

Waving to the crowd at the 50th Anniversary Charter Signing event.